Haller’s Hires

Syndication: Lansing State Journal — Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

A look at coaching hires and the MSU athletic department under AD Alan Haller

Alan Haller has made at least eight head coaching hires in his tenure as Michigan State’s athletic director. Everyone is well familiar with football coach Jonathan Smith, who produced a 5-7 record in his first season at MSU. This probably fell a little bit short of expectations, or at least hopes, for Smith’s inaugural season. Many seemed to be looking for the Spartans to make a bowl game after going two seasons without one.

That, of course, didn’t happen. The team played hard early in the season but turnovers and penalties hurt them. Later in the season, injuries really began to mount on the offensive line and in the secondary. The same passion and effort also may have been lacking at times after losing to Michigan in Ann Arbor.

How the Jonathan Smith hire plays out may play a big role in defining Haller’s legacy at MSU, but Smith should get more than one year to make that definition. Even though his first season probably fell short of “successful”, Smith is already working towards the future in signing his first recruiting class, including flipping running back Jace Clarizio back from Alabama, and working hard in the transfer portal .

Let’s take a deeper look at Haller’s other head coaching hires and a brief look at some of the competitive highlights of the athletic department since Haller took over on September 1, 2021.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, MSU won Big Ten championships in women’s cross country, women’s soccer, and women’s gymnastics. The soccer and gymnastics crowns were MSU’s first ever.

In 2023-2024, the Spartans repeated in women’s cross country, women’s soccer, women’s gymnastics (both regular and postseason) while hockey (regular season and tournament) also produced conference banners. The hockey championship was MSU’s first ever in the Big Ten, first regular season conference championship since 2001, and first postseason tournament championship since 2006.

Off the field, Spartan athletes had a good year in the classroom last year. Every team finished 2023-2024 with a cumulative GPA above 3.0 and the 3.37 cumulative GPA for all MSU athletes is their highest ever.

So far this year, men’s tennis star Ozan Baris advanced all the way to the NCAA championship final match, women’s soccer and women’s cross country were selected for the NCAA postseason, the men’s and women’s basketball teams are off to solid starts, and hockey is ranked number one.

Head Coaching Hires by Alan Haller

Jeff Hosler took over as the women’s soccer head coach on June 1, 2021 – three months before Haller officially took over. This appears to technically be Bill Beekman’s hire in one his last acts as athletic director. Beekman resigned on August 5, 2021 and served in an interim capacity until Haller took over. MSU’s release announcing Hosler credits Beekman for the decision but it seems reasonable that Haller, who worked under Beekman at the time, may have at least played a role here.

Hosler took over for Tom Saxton, who retired after 30 years at MSU with a 274-252-56 record. Saxton led MSU to its first ever NCAA tournament in 2006.

Hosler came to MSU after seven years at Division 2 Grand Valley State where he went 144-12-6, won three NCAA championships, and advanced to the title game five times. In addition to the two Big Ten championships, in three seasons with the Spartans, Hosler’s teams have gone 45-11-11, played in the NCAA tournament each year, and advanced to the third round in each of the last two years.

While women’s soccer at MSU had certainly seen success under Saxton, it’s safe to say that Hosler has certainly moved the program forward.

Haller announced Adam Nightingale as hockey coach in May, 2022. The program was far from the national championships won under legendary coach Ron Mason and his successor, Rick Comley. The Spartans were coming off a 12-23-1 season when Nightingale took over and improved to 18-18-2 in 2022-23. Nightingale followed that up with the Big Ten regular and postseason championship and advanced to within a game of the NCAA Frozen Four last season.

This year, the Spartans go into next week’s Great Lakes Invitational tournament with a 13-2-1 record and ranked number one in the nation.

Nightingale played at MSU from 2003-2005 under Comley. Prior to MSU, he coached the United States National Team Development Program, served as video coach for US National Team, served on four NHL staffs, and has coached youth hockey.

It’s safe to say Nightingale’s transition to collegiate coaching has been nothing short of remarkable.

Haller hired Sharonda McDonald-Kelley to coach Spartan softball on June 10, 2022. McDonald-Kelly came to East Lansing from Campbell University where she posted a 101-81 record in four seasons.

MSU softball hasn’t had a winning season since going 34-24 in 2017. In the five years between then and McDonald-Kelley’s hiring, the Spartans went 86-130 (.398).

McDonald-Kelley has gone 14-32 and 21-30 (.361) in her first two seasons leading the Spartans.

Three days after McDonald-Kelly took the reins of the softball program, Harry Jadun was named head coach of men’s tennis. MSU tennis finished 15-14 in 2021-22, the last before Jadun took over. In the previous four seasons, the Spartans won only 25 of 80 matches.

2024 Division I Men’s Tennis Championship

After the barely winning season in ‘21-22, Jadun went 11-14 in his first year before rapid improvement to 23-7 in 2023-24. This year, the NCAA held their individual championships in the fall and, as mentioned above, Ozan Baris finished second in the nation. The ‘24-25 season resumes in January.

Robyn Fralick was named women’s basketball coach on March 31, 2023 after Suzy Merchant stepped down. Prior to MSU, Fralick went 88-73 in five seasons leading Bowling Green State and advanced to the 2023 WNIT semifinals. Prior to BGSU, Fralick had a historic run in three seasons at Division 2 Ashland University. She went 104-3 and her .972 winning percentage was the highest in NCAA at any level.

Fralick’s Spartans went 22-9 last year and made the NCAA tournament. They are off to an 11-1 start this year.

Smith was announced as the next football coach the day after a dismal 2023 season ended with a 42-0 loss to Penn State in Detroit. While Smith’s tenure at MSU has yet to play out, it’s hard to argue that the process to bring him to East Lansing was not successful.

With Mel Tucker being suspended two games into the 2023 season and ultimately fired, Haller was able to get a head start on this search. After resurrecting his alma mater, Oregon State, Smith was widely viewed as one of the top candidates for the MSU job (or any job nationwide) and Haller was able to officially bring him on as soon as the regular season ended.

Stacey Rippetoe was named women’s rowing head coach after the 2024 season. Spring 2025 will be her first as head coach at MSU. Rippetoe previously served as an MSU assistant from 2000-2008. That period was part of a very successful run for Spartan rowing. MSU made seven NCAA championship appearances, finishing sixth in 2006 and 2008. The Spartans also won the Big Ten team championship in 2005 and 2008 and finished lower than third place only once during Rippetoe’s time on staff.

Since then, MSU rowing has fallen on hard times. Haller is likely banking on Rippetoe leading them back to the top of the Big Ten – a task that got a lot more challenging with the addition of perennial national power the University of Washington.

Finally, Haller has made two volleyball hires. Kristen Kelsay was just named to the head coach position earlier this week. Kelsay was a standout player at MSU and was an assistant coach here from 2015-2018. Kelsay also has coaching experience at Big Ten rivals Northwestern and, most recently, Minnesota. This past season, Minnesota made its tenth straight NCAA tournament appearance and recorded regular season victories over #1 Texas and #7 Wisconsin. Kelsay was the Gophers’ recruiting coordinator in 2024.

She takes over for Leah Johnson, who Haller hired prior to the 2022 season. MSU’s best season under Johnson was 2023 when they went 17-14 but the Spartans were only 43-50 overall and 19-41 in Big Ten play during Johnson’s three seasons.

All in all, Haller’s hires have a variety of backgrounds. Those with ties to MSU include Nightingale (player), Jadun (player, assistant coach), Rippetoe (assistant coach), and Kelsay (player, assistant coach).

Hosler, McDonald-Kelley, Fralick, and Smith did not have MSU ties.

Hosler and Fralick previously excelled at NCAA Division 2 programs while Nightingale’s experience is primarily with the NHL and the US Development Team. Kelsay has been an assistant at successful programs. Rippetoe was the head coach at Boston University for a time between her roles as assistant coach at MSU and her last coaching stop at Rhode Island.

Only one of Haller’s hires, Johnson with volleyball, appears not to have worked out.

Hosler, whether his hire is credited to Beekman or Haller, has been extremely successful as has Nightingale, who has completely turned the hockey program around. Jadun with men’s tennis and Fralick with women’s basketball both appear to be on the right track.

McDonald-Kelley with softball, Smith with football, and of course Rippetoe, who has yet to lead the Spartans in the competitive season, with rowing and Kelsay, who has only been on the job a few days with volleyball, are TBD.

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